Destination America Cancels Impact

[Aftermath]

When Austin did those interviews with Vince and HHH, what other conversations did they have off camera? Did Austin do any pulling for they guys he is big on? Did they ask him about which wrestlers he thought would be money?

If you listen to Austin's podcasts, listen to his interviews with Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, James Storm, and Eric Young. Now 2 of those guys are on NXT.

I mean if I just did a two hour interview with Kevin Steen and then I'm sitting in front of Vince I'd use some of my pull to say "what's the deal with this guy, he's money".

[Greg_McNeish]

With regards to the potential lawsuit, claiming that it's defamation definitively implies that the statement is a lie. It's part and parcel.

Saw on the Wrestleview update, yesterday, that TNA is denying they're "cancelled", while Meltzer is saying they "won't be renewed". So... stuff?

[El Canuck]

When Austin did those interviews with Vince and HHH, what other conversations did they have off camera? Did Austin do any pulling for they guys he is big on? Did they ask him about which wrestlers he thought would be money?

If you listen to Austin's podcasts, listen to his interviews with Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, James Storm, and Eric Young. Now 2 of those guys are on NXT.

I mean if I just did a two hour interview with Kevin Steen and then I'm sitting in front of Vince I'd use some of my pull to say "what's the deal with this guy, he's money".

About a year or so (maybe more) this same discussion came up when TNA was on similarly shaky legs and everyone was wondering if anyone would end up brought up to the WWE. The problem with that was age. WWE seemed only interested in bringing in guys from the indies that they could mold themselves into the WWE stars they wanted. I did up a list of the TNA roster at the time with their ages beside them and it was found that Magnus was pretty much the only guy on their roster that had a look and was under 30.

The problem with James Storm and EY, as much as I like those guys, is that they are 37 and 35 respectively. Rosters have a finite space and WWE made a one time thing out of bringing in one 36 year old to the NXT roster. Just because they did that is no reason to open the floodgates and start bringing in more that they have neither the time nor purpose for.

[Greg_McNeish]

They'd also courted Samoa Joe for ages. He just finally agreed to their terms (including dropping a bunch of weight). Nobody else in TNA is beating back interest from WWE.

[Red_And_Yellow]

So, TNA has said it's defamation and that they're going to sue, but have they actually said it's not true?

Yea who knows what's going on at TNA. Destination America should be letting people know that TNA isn't cancelled if it wasn't the case. It certainly seems like TNA is about to lose their 2nd home and it may be hard for them to find a 3rd.

I don't understand Mike Johnson feeling the need to distinguish between not renew and cancel, they are used interchangeably in the TV industry. The contract had an out in September, that to me sounds like canceled. That September deadline wasn't a renewal, they signed a 2 year agreement with TNA.

[El Canuck]

How many times has Meltzer had lawsuits threatened at him by wrestlers and execs over the years I wonder?

Having looked at the latest the front page story all I can do is paraphrase Melisandre: "The comments are angry and full of errors."

[Red_And_Yellow]

There have been guys on a hardcore fan site, TNAMecca, who have said they will assault and/or kill him. Unbelievable stuff.

[El Canuck]

TNA: "Cross The Line"...Of rational discourse.

[isrs4life]

How long will it be when impact is canceled from the fight network?
Talking about canadian bases because its a specialty channel
with not much views I believe they show impact on the weekend only.

[El Canuck]

If it's cancelled on DA then they won't be making any new episodes. They may linger on for a short while, produce some TV for their international markets, but if they don't land another network in the US, they're done.

[Aftermath]

Do you believe WWE would be interested in just the TNA Library?

They could use it to showcase Samoa Joe and Complete stings archive.

Also, if the get Angle to come back, they could do a complete Kurt Angle anthology DVD.

You can make a similar case for Bully Ray.

If they did bring in Magnus or Bobby rude, they could make similar showcases.

[El Canuck]

I think if TNA were to go under that WWE would go after their library before the dust settled. They might not do anything with it right away, but they would definitely grab it up quickly.

[Big slim]

Yeah, they could use it just to have some added material for the network and for those DVDs you mentioned Aftermath.

[Greg_McNeish]

I think if TNA were to go under that WWE would go after their library before the dust settled. They might not do anything with it right away, but they would definitely grab it up quickly.

I disagree. I would expect them to not buy the library UNTIL the dust has settled. They've never rushed to buy footage of defunct companies, which is why WCW owned most of the territory library WWE now has in the vaults. They've got the luxury of time, whereas the person holding the library will only become more and more willing/desperate to sell.

They waited two decades to buy the Mid-South library, and Mid-South was awesome. Why would there be a rush to lock down the tapes from shitty, shitty TNA?

[El Canuck]

I still disagree. We live in a different digital age than we had fifteen years ago when WCW went under. TNA might be totally inferior to Mid-South but it is a fairly recognisable name in wrestling and a company like Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu could scoop it up to add some wrestling to the own library that WWE has so far had the monopoly on. I don't think WWE would wait for one of those companies to perhaps swoop in. Or at least that's my feeling on it, maybe they wouldn't bother with it after all, but I think if WWE thought there was a chance one of them would, they'd make sure they came away with it.

[Greg_McNeish]

Nobody sees TNA as a valuable commodity as a first-run television show, so why would anybody pay good money for their video library? I'm sure WWE will make an offer, but it'll be totally low-balled. For someone else to get it early, they'd have to actually offer what Panda would be holding out for, and I simply cannot see that happening.

TNA's a company that can't support itself with ticket sales, has never released a successful DVD (to my knowledge), can't grow a television audience, and is totally off-putting to advertisers. Their brand and their library are worthless.

Worthless.

[Big slim]

So maybe its not WWE that would rush to buy, but the company would be in a rush to sell.

[Greg_McNeish]

Right, which is why you go in with a low-ball offer. If Panda just wants to GTFO, you get their assets for peanuts. As well, if there is anyone else who makes an offer — maybe SmartMark Video decides to make a play, in a fit of megalomania — Panda would contact WWE to let them know that it's time to start a bidding war. Either way, WWE's in the game, but not in a position to pay a single extra dime. Most importantly, there's no rush, for one simple reason: There is nobody — NOBODY — who can get a better return on investment with TNA's trademarks and video library than the WWE, and that won't change. Sooner or later, they'll get it, and they'll milk whatever little value they can out of it.

If this recent activity with Sting, both at Wrestlemania and the DVD, should tell us anything, it's that there's no such thing as waiting too long to hit the nostalgia market. Wrestling fans, once they make it out of their teens, are lifers. Whether it's 2 years from now, 10 years, or 25 years, when WWE gains control of TNA's library, and releases it, everyone that wants it now will be just as willing to pay for it.

Time is ever on their side.

[Red_And_Yellow]

I still disagree. We live in a different digital age than we had fifteen years ago when WCW went under. TNA might be totally inferior to Mid-South but it is a fairly recognisable name in wrestling and a company like Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu could scoop it up to add some wrestling to the own library that WWE has so far had the monopoly on. I don't think WWE would wait for one of those companies to perhaps swoop in. Or at least that's my feeling on it, maybe they wouldn't bother with it after all, but I think if WWE thought there was a chance one of them would, they'd make sure they came away with it.

While there could be other suitors, I doubt TNA is a hot commodity. They are around 500k viewers every week on Destination America, were over 1 million viewers for a lot of their run in Spike. That's not a popular show in the grand scheme of things. It's basically low value, low reward, though I wouldn't rule it out entirely, it seems unlikely.

[Big slim]

Its like the situation with WCW, since they have no real competition to buy it, they can basically pay what they want.